1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a universal optical fiber plug, and more particularly to a plug that is able to connect to an optical fiber socket without having to consider the orientation of the plug so the plug and the socket can be connected easily.
2. Description of Related Art
With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, a conventional optical fiber plug (50) has a hollow connecting portion (51) and a holding portion (52) for a user to hold when the plug (50) is to be connected to a socket (60). The connecting portion (51) has an open end (53) with a hollow tube (54) extending out from the hollow connecting portion (51) to hold a first optical fiber filament (not shown). A pair of bosses (55) are formed on a top and a bottom face of the connecting portion (51) and a rib (56) is formed on side faces between the top and bottom faces of the connecting portion (51). At the joints of the side faces and the bottom faces, oblique faces (57) relative to the bottom face are formed.
The optical fiber socket (60) has an opening (61) with a receiving block (62) formed inside the opening (61) and a passage (63) defined in the receiving block (62) and aligned with the hollow tube (54) in the plug (50) to hold a second optical fiber (not shown). The first and second filaments (not shown) inside the tube (54) and the passage (63) respectively are able to communicate with each other after the connecting portion (51) is inserted into the opening (61). To ensure that the connection between the optical fiber plug (50) and the socket (60) is made correctly, orientation features are provided in the socket (60) to ensure the proper orientation of the plug (50) and the socket (60) when connected. The orientation features include keyways (64) corresponding to the ribs (56), oblique sidewalls (65) corresponding to the oblique faces (57) and recesses (66) corresponding to the bosses (55). When the connecting portion (51) is inserted into the opening (61) of the socket (60), the ribs (56), the bosses (55) and the oblique faces (57) correspond to the keyways (64), the recesses (66) and the oblique sidewalls (65) respectively to secure the engagement between the optical fiber plug (50) and the optical fiber socket (60). An incorrect connection between the optical fiber plug (50) and the optical fiber socket (60) is impossible. However, workers on a construction site often need to work in resitricted or confined spaces, and the workers finding the right orientation of both the optical fiber plug and socket (50, 60) may be quite difficult and time consuming. Delays associated with making optical fiber cable connections slow down the entire work schedule. Further, home video and acoustic devices often have optical fibers connections on the back of the devices. Because the back of virtually all these devices is close to walls, the users will have to move the devices away from the wall to access the optical fiber connections to make required adjustment. Therefore, dealing with conventional optical fiber plugs especially within a restricted or confined space is difficult.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an improved universal optical fiber plug to mitigate and obviate the aforementioned problems.
The primary objective of the invention is to provide an optical fiber plug that can be connected to an optical fiber socket without regard to the orientation of the optical fiber plug so that the optical fiber plug is able to connect to the optical fiber socket with any orientation.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.